Kindergarten Reading Groups

[AggieMama]

My DD is 5 and in PS at the school at teach at. They have been doing reading groups for about a month. The district is super obsessed with fluency doing reading assessments for placement three times a year. DD is able to read books at home at level L, but at school she has been placed at a group that reads at D. DH and I believe this is no challenge to her and know that she will get into trouble if not challenged. Currently DD sees school as a big social event. She is also exhibiting signs of ADHD. We asked the school about the reading group, but we're told they would watch and see if she needed to be moved. Any thoughts?

[Tanaqui]

Odds are, they don't have enough children reading higher than D level to make a higher level group for her. Around here, that's the standard they expect for the end of the Kindergarten year, and it's only November!

[HomeAgain]

From a different perspective....I had to look up the reading level charts to see where ds5 would be.  According to the alphabet system, he's a Y or a Z, given the comparison of the lexile scores of the books he enjoys for personal reading to the leveled system used in school. 

However, when I have him read to me, we use a "comfort" level book, about an N to an R, or maybe even lower than that.  He has the mechanics of reading down.  This gives him a chance to excel in comprehension (no unfamiliar vocabulary), and learn to read aloud properly- with expression, the right pauses, anticipating storylines - all things I want him to work on in a comfortable setting.  These are important, just as important as the mechanics, and I'd rather take a bit of time each day to work on skills he is going to need when he reads books to himself.

[Arcadia]

Reading comprehension level can be a few levels below reading level. My kids kindergarten teachers gave me an alphabet for both since they test for reading and for comprehension. So you could get a X for reading and a K for comprehension for example.

[tm919]

Hmm, it sounds from what you said like there is a higher reading group (since they said she could be moved if they thought necessary?). Did they tell you where she didn't do as well (e.g., did she have more than average inaccuracies)? If there is room to move up, it might be something you can help her with at home if it's something easy. Example: My daughter was actually at her WORST as a read-alouder at about L because she would mumble then fall silent, and her eyes would skip ahead of where she was reading aloud... learning to read aloud well, with expression, and at the speed that suits the audience is a skill that didn't come right away. When she was in the D, F, G range she actually SOUNDED better reading those texts, because she spoke at the speed she read.

[Have kids -- will travel]

My 5yo reads at level 4 now at school (different system) but 7/8+ at home. He loves the school stories, actually, so I don't mind that they are easy for him at this point. Is your daughter enjoying the books she gets from school? How often do they get a chance to change levels? DS has gone up two levels since the start of school and is due to go up again soon. 

 

How often do you chat with the teacher? Can she provide information on what your daughter needs to achieve to move up? DS has mastered the phonics levels where he is, reads fluently, and comprehends easily. So we have worked on the school's phonics system (he can read anything but needed help to know what the teacher wanted him to say if she wrote "ai" and "igh"), expressive reading, and most recently pausing between sentences. By fixing those things that the school saw as signs of weak reading, he's moved up faster.

 

My last point is that if the child doesn't like the books she is supposed to read for school, throw them out and let her read what she wants. No need to torture five-year-olds with boring books! Reading is reading at this age.

[SKL]

I wouldn't get too hung up on the reading group.  How much time of the day is spent in the reading group?  Probably not enough to make a big difference.  I agree with the suggestions to let him read what he likes at home, regardless of the level the school says he's at.

 

My kids' schools have never had "reading groups."  I thought that was crazy, but I can't say it has made a difference.  The kids get their "differentiation" during free reading.

[JulieA97]

We toured a PS Kindergarten class a month ago and asked about reading. The principal said that *if* a child was at level C they would be with the other level C students but level C would be very very high for beginning of the K year. By the end of the year they are expected to be at D. End of first grade expected Level J. She indicated that no one would be above C and only a couple, if any, at that level. DS was at that level when he was 3. She didn't believe me (we'll see was her comment). I think its very possible they didn't test for higher than D.

[AggieMama]

There is a chance for DD to move up groups once a year. I think she was put in her specific reading group because of her IRI (Informal Reading Inventory) and MAP score. Very few kids go to the higher groups and I think there are only a handful of kids that are in higher groups. DD likely became tires when testing at the beginning of the year. Her comprehension is far beyond her reading level. The district has crazy protocols.

[Have kids -- will travel]

There is a chance for DD to move up groups once a year. I think she was put in her specific reading group because of her IRI (Informal Reading Inventory) and MAP score. Very few kids go to the higher groups and I think there are only a handful of kids that are in higher groups. DD likely became tires when testing at the beginning of the year. Her comprehension is far beyond her reading level. The district has crazy protocols.

 

So you mean "reading group" rather than book level? DS's school is constantly reevaluating grouping, which makes sense as some kids get improve faster than others.

 

It sounds like you need to talk to the school. Not just a five minute chat at pickup, but a sit-down, possibly with a headteacher or principal.

 

FWIW, DS is in the highest reading group and still reading very far above the levels of the others. His teacher told me that they don't restrict the book level sent home to what the others' in the group are capable, but he obviously doesn't have peers.

[mymomtime]

My son was moved out of kindergarten reading. His school levels reading/language arts school wide after kindergarten. He is reading on approximately a 2.5 grade level. His school placed him in the first level of first grade.  The reason they put him in that class instead of his reading ability is because the rest of his Language Arts skills are not on a second grade level.  I was also told he reads circles around the other kids in his class.

His handwriting, spelling, and written expression are more in line with first grade in our public school.  He is a little bit bored, but not to the point of me getting notes home.  The "stories" he brings home are extremely simple for him to read.  They spend 3 days on one story and we are suppose to read it every day (and I think they expect it to take 20 minutes to read).  I have been told, he only has to read it the first day it comes home and the other days he can read something else.  The classroom is reinforcing some phonics and is teaching him spelling using phonics.  The "other" language arts" skills he is working on in the 1st grade classroom seem to give him enough challenge that he isn't getting into enough trouble for the teacher to write home about.

 

My son probably is also very active and can act out when bored.  One of the teachers even told me, "We don't want him getting bored, please read other books at home."  This was over a concern because his class was repeating 3 stories.  He did fine.  We didn't re-read any of the stories and he amazingly did fine.

 

Kindergarten for him is a social event as well.  I am keeping him challenged at home with lots of read-alouds, and some more challenging math and language arts skills at home.  

 

Good luck OP!

[mathnerd]

In our school system, they ask the child to read aloud an excerpt and then ask comprehension questions. This determines the initial placement. My DS is a compliant and eager student with no issues reading loudly and clearly in class and he was placed at level L with a 1st grader when he was in K. There was a girl who was at an even higher level who refused to read out loud because she was self conscious and she got placed at level C because the teacher assumed that she did not have the ability. The mother of the girl, when she found out that DS was at a higher level asked the teacher to reassess the reading level and brought in a sample of the books that she was reading (Geronimo Stilton, Flat Stanley etc) and then, the teacher placed her in the same level with DS. Later, when DS progressed to a level where there was no one else in the class for the group, the teacher made a separate group with him and the teacher and they read together (she called that "differentiation"). So, you can ask for a reassessment and if she comes out higher than everyone else, ask if they can do a reading group of 1 with the teacher. Looking back, it does not matter, because we kept Ds reading at the level that he wanted to at home anyway and the school reading group was for 10 minutes at a time whereas he easily read in stretches of 1 hour at home. Good luck.

[kiwik]

Here for the first two years the reading groups are very fluid as testing (running record and comprehension questions) is done about every 6 weeks and the groups reconfigured. They also play a sort of shell game with tge group names to try and conceal which groups are highest/lowest.

[debi21]

In our school, they don't mix kindergartners with other grades. So they split the K classes by general ability/preparation (letters and numbers). Then for reading groups, they broke the 'top' class only into two groups; the top 6-8 kids and the rest of the class. My son didn't make a lot of reading progress in K. He entered reading at a 3rd grade level and ended at probably a late 3rd grade level.

 

Anyway, for the OP, I agree maybe they just don't have that many groups of advanced kids for K.

[Arcadia]

Advocating for my oldest was easy when he was in public school. His K and 1st grade teachers were very accomodating. Know what accomodations you would like for your child and let your child's teacher know.

 

My kid's teacher did not have any "hard" books so we use our own books or the school (K-8) library's books.

[AggieMama]

This whole situation with reading groups an the books being sent home is magnified by the fact that I am a teacher at the school my daughter is at. The district has specific guidelines and does not deviate, especially when it comes to reading and math (at least for the first few grades). I don't feel like I can approach my principal if needed about differentiation. I feel like the teachers are dismissive as well. I guess I just need to keep encouraging good reading skills at home and keep the challenge.